Kamo's question landed like a blow.
"London? Soso, that's impossible. How can you be in London and still be Stolypin's man in Tbilisi?"
The cellar swallowed the words. For a second the gold, the letter, the triumph—all of it felt distant, useless. Two masters tugged him opposite ways. To follow one was to betray the other.
Shaumian was the first to answer, slow and careful. He paced with his hands behind his back. "The answer is clear, though it is painful," he said. "You cannot go, Soso. Write Lenin back. Explain the security situation. Say the Security Committee needs you. He is a rational man. He will understand. We cannot risk our network for a congress."
Safe. Logical. Cowardly.
Kamo snorted. "No. This is an honor. Lenin summoned you. That lifts us all. We cannot refuse. We go. We cut the line. Danilov stops sending. Let Stolypin wonder. By the time he notices, you'll be back."
Brute force thinking. Simple. Dangerous.
Jake listened to both, then let them finish. He looked at Shaumian, then at Kamo. Calm slid into his voice. "You are both brilliant comrades," he said. "And you are both wrong."
He turned to Shaumian first. "If I refuse Lenin's summons, he will not see prudence. He will see weakness. He will think the 'man of steel' I described is a fraud. The political capital I've won will vanish. We cannot lose that."
He faced Kamo. "And if we go dark, Stolypin won't merely wonder. A man like him burns loose ends. He will assume compromise or betrayal. He will suffocate this city with raids and arrests. He will make an example. We won't survive that."
Silence pressed down. The options were poison.
"So what then?" Shaumian whispered. "You cannot be in two places at once."
A cold smile touched Jake's lips. It was a dangerous kind of grin. "You are correct," he said. "I cannot. Which is why I will not be in two places at once."
Their confusion showed on their faces.
"I will split the role," Jake said. "Soso Jughashvili—the head of Security—remains here. His orders, his presence, his reputation will stay. But Stalin—the delegate—will go to London."
They stared. He leaned in and laid out the plan, a theatrical deception built from lies so precise it could pass for truth.
"First: Danilov," Jake said, nodding toward the locked room. "He is our voice. We will not send a few notes. We will script him. Every few days he sends a report—two months minimum. We'll write everything: power struggles, scares, fake victories. A complete narrative. He will perform it. He will be our ghost in Stolypin's ear."
Shaumian's face paled. "We'll be lying to our own party."
"We will be saving it," Jake answered. "If the story convinces Stolypin, he will be led where we want."
"Second," Jake went on, "Kamo—you become my echo. Walk the streets like me. Issue orders in my name. Be seen at the headquarters at odd hours. Speak with authority. Anyone who asks—tell them I am in strategic planning. We will create an aura. Absence will make the command more feared, not less."
Kamo's jaw tightened. He liked the idea of being seen, of carrying that shadow.
"And Stepan," Jake said, looking at Shaumian, "you handle the politics. Tell the committee I'm on a secret, dangerous mission. Leak details that build awe. Make my absence into proof of my importance, not my cowardice."
Shaumian swallowed. "We are lying to our comrades. If Danilov slips—if one letter reads wrong—if anyone smells a pattern—"
"The rewards outweigh the risks," Jake cut in, steady and cold. "If this works, Stolypin will be fed our script. Lenin gets his delegate. I get access to both the heart of the party and the state's security network. We turn crisis into opportunity."
He paused. The plan was audacious. It required flawless acting from a broken man, absolute loyalty from two others, and a conspiracy that would thread through the city like a needle through cloth.
"We are not just surviving," Jake said softly. "We are building an empire of secrets. With that empire, we will build the future."
They listened. Fear and excitement warred on their faces. The cellar seemed smaller, the stakes larger.
Shaumian finally spoke, small and raw. "If this fails—"
"It won't," Jake said. He sounded like a man who had already calculated the fall and decided he would land on his feet. "Because we will make every lie feel like truth."
Outside, Tbilisi breathed in the dark. Inside, three men turned an impossible demand into an even more impossible plan. The deception would begin at dusk.